Authored by Clarence (Singapore), MSc Living Planet with Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
When the majority of Imperial students picture Silwood Park, they conjure up an impression of a verdant, enigmatic, and green campus bustling with wildlife and vegetation rarely seen on other campuses like South Kensington or White City. In several respects, they are absolutely correct – and every depiction of Silwood Park holds true!
As an ambassador of this lesser-known community within Imperial, I wish to emphasize the student experience, activities, and community present at our natural parkland campus located in Ascot, Berkshire.
A brief overview of Silwood Park
Silwood Park serves as Imperial’s outdoor laboratory, covering 77 hectares and featuring habitats such as freshwater streams, lakes, an “ancient” forest, and open grasslands. A quick query on iNaturalist, an app for mapping and sharing biodiversity observations worldwide with an online community of naturalists, reveals that 1,436 species of plants, animals, and fungi have been recorded on campus, while an additional search on eBird indicates that 111 species of birds have been logged on campus thus far.
Moreover, Silwood Park is the location of numerous long-term field research initiatives, with the Nash’s Field Experiment and the Blue Tit Project being two of the more recognized projects conducted on-site.
Student experience at Silwood Park
The campus predominantly hosts postgraduate students focused on ecology, conservation, and evolution projects. Many of us are participating in various clubs affiliated with Silwood Park. Some noteworthy examples include:
- Chicken Club – responsible for the care of the chickens raised behind our residence halls
- Book Club – who meet regularly to discuss books of interest from their reading lists
- Gardening Club – managing the allotments in our community garden
- Conservation Club – organizing nature walks and conservation-themed activities for students at Silwood Park Campus.
Being part of the broader Imperial student body, many of us are also involved in and frequently participate in activities of clubs located in South Kensington too!
In addition, we have informal clubs that partake in sports such as badminton, basketball, and pickleball (my personal favorite!), which are either held on the multi-use games arena (MUGA) on campus or at the indoor sports facilities situated in nearby towns like Bracknell or Ascot.
Beyond club activities and classes, there are numerous community-led events that take place on campus. Silwood Park boasts its own student council that organizes and facilitates these activities to ensure a vibrant and engaging student life! In recent months, we’ve hosted the Silwood language exchange, where our largely international community united to share our languages and cultures over several weeks, as well as our annual Chinese New Year celebration at the beginning of the year, where everyone gathered to make dumplings and couplets to welcome the onset of a new lunar year. We’ve also enjoyed community-organized parties celebrating festivities from around the globe (such as Carnival) or parties held simply for the joy of gathering together.
However, my cherished campus event has to be the weekly pub quiz, coordinated by our student community. It’s a Silwood custom that the losing team of the pub quiz is responsible for hosting the next one, and I can proudly state that I’ve set the most pub quizzes this year. Despite losing numerous pub quizzes due to my limited knowledge of general trivia, there’s always a great deal of enjoyment to be found with good friends and a nice pint of beer.
Silwood Park: my second home
Even though it’s situated a 30-minute walk from the lively essence of civilization (e.g., the train station and the nearest village), life at Silwood Park has never seemed ordinary or lacking.